Hamas leader outlines conditions for peace

Hamas will end its armed struggle against Israel if the Jewish state withdraws from all occupied Palestinian territories, its leader has told a Russian newspaper.

The radical Islamist group's supremo Khaled Meshaal made the comments to the daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta, in an interview published today.

"If Israel recognises our rights and pledges to withdraw from all occupied lands, Hamas, and the Palestinian people together with it, will decide to halt armed resistance," he said.

In earlier statements, Mr Meshal had only said that Hamas could agree to a "long-term truce" with Israel if it were willing to return to the 1967 borders and recognise the rights of Palestinians to self-determination.

However, Mr Meshal added in his latest comments, Hamas did not feel bound by the international Middle East roadmap for peace since, in his view, no one else was abiding by it.

"Since no one is abiding by the dispositions of the roadmap, the Palestinians also feel it is not expedient to adhere to it," said Mr Meshal, who is based in the Syrian capital Damascus.

Hamas won a surprise victory in the January 25 parliamentary elections in the Palestinian territories but has since come under international pressure to renounce violence against Israel.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin extended a controversial invitation to Hamas to visit Moscow for talks on the future of the Middle East peace process, an idea accepted with relish by the Islamists who are poised to form the next Palestinian government.

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